Masters

BANZAI PIPELINE, Oahu/Hawaii (Tuesday, December 11, 2018) – The final stop on the 2018 World Surf League (WSL) Men’s Championship Tour (CT), the Billabong Pipe Masters in Memory of Andy Irons, will be off again today with leftover 2-to-3 foot NNW swell. With a new NW swell forecasted to build later today, the event looks likely to start tomorrow.

“Stormy weather continuing so the event will be off today,” said Kieren Perrow, WSL Commissioner. “It is looking really good for tomorrow. Almost one-hundred percent certain that we will get underway with the Pipe Invitational. We will come back tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. for another call.

“There is a new swell starting to show on the buoys. It should build through this evening and hold for the next couple of days so we will have some options. Another series of overlapping swells through Friday and Saturday, and now Sunday and Monday are showing great potential for a new swell that is going to be even larger than what we see over the next couple of days. We will be aiming for a finish over that.”

The holding period for the Billabong Pipe Masters runs through 20 December 2018, and event organizers will select the best days to run the competition within that time frame. The next decision on if the competition will run will be tomorrow, Wednesday, December 12, at 7:30 a.m. HST.

Pipe Invitational Will Determine Two Wildcards for Billabong Pipe Masters
The first competition day of the Billabong Pipe Masters will feature the Pipe Invitational, a 32-man trials event that awards the top two finishers a wildcard into the main event. With a $ 60,000 prize purse on the line, but more importantly, a chance to play spoiler to the World Title, the Pipe Invitational will kick things off in dramatic fashion once competition begins.The 32-man draw is comprised of the top 12 finishers from the 2018 Volcom Pipe Pro, four Hawaii athletes off the International QS, four from the regional QS, six event wildcards, four standout Pipe performers, the 2017 Pipe Invitational defending event winner, and a Vans Triple Crown of Surfing contender. Names like Billy Kemper (HAW), 3x Jaws Challenge winner and reigning Big Wave Champion; former Pipe Invitational winners Finn McGill (HAW) and Dusty Payne (HAW); North Shore big wave standout Jack Robinson (AUS); and Hawaiian notable Mason Ho (HAW) fill the roster, alongside young guns like Wyatt McHale (HAW), 17, Justin Becret (FRA), 17, and Barron Mamiya (HAW), who have also earned their place in the lineup.

BANZAI PIPELINE, Oahu/Hawaii (Wednesday, December 12, 2018) – After four consecutive lay days at the Billabong Pipe Masters in Memory of Andy Irons, the final stop on the 2018 World Surf League (WSL) Men’s Championship Tour (CT) has been called ON in building 6-to-8 foot NW swell with improved offshore easterly winds. The Men’s Pipe Invitational, the 32-man trials that award the top two finishers a wildcard into the main event, will start at 8:00 a.m. HST. The Women’s Pipe Invitational, a single-heat Final, will be on standby for a possible run today.

“The Men’s Pipe Invitational trials event is on starting at 8:00 a.m. local time,” said Renato Hickel, WSL Deputy Commissioner. “We have six-to-eight foot NW swell with improved winds. The Men’s Pipe Invitational today will determine our two wildcards into the Billabong Pipe Masters. We are also putting the Women’s Pipe Invitational on standby for a possible finish today.”

Pipe Invitational Will Determine Two Wildcards for Billabong Pipe Masters
The first competition day of the Billabong Pipe Masters will feature the Pipe Invitational, a 32-man trials event that awards the top two finishers a wildcard into the main event. With a $ 60,000 prize purse on the line, but more importantly, a chance to play spoiler to the World Title, the Pipe Invitational will kick things off in dramatic fashion once competition begins.The 32-man draw is comprised of the top 12 finishers from the 2018 Volcom Pipe Pro, four Hawaii athletes off the International QS, four from the regional QS, six event wildcards, four standout Pipe performers, the 2017 Pipe Invitational defending event winner, and a Vans Triple Crown of Surfing contender. Names like Billy Kemper (HAW), 3x Jaws Challenge winner and reigning Big Wave Champion; former Pipe Invitational winners Finn McGill (HAW) and Dusty Payne (HAW); North Shore big wave standout Jack Robinson (AUS); and Hawaiian notable Mason Ho (HAW) fill the roster, alongside young guns like Wyatt McHale (HAW), 17, Justin Becret (FRA), 17, and Barron Mamiya (HAW), who have also earned their place in the lineup.

Women’s Pipe Invitational on Standby for Today
The Women’s Pipe Invitational is on hold for today and could potentially run after the Men’s Pipe Invitational. Four athletes will compete in a single-heat Final for the prestigious win.

BANZAI PIPELINE, Oahu/Hawaii (Sunday, December 9, 2018) – The Billabong Pipe Masters in Memory of Andy Irons, the final stop on the 2018 World Surf League (WSL) Men’s Championship Tour (CT), has been called OFF today due to strong side shore winds and stormy, 10-to-12 foot NNW swell on offer at Pipeline. The holding period for the Pipe Masters runs through Thursday, December 20, and event organizers will select the best days to run the competition within that time frame.

“Day 2 of the window for the Billabong Pipe Masters and we have stormy, massive conditions out there with really strong winds,” said Renato Hickel, WSL Deputy Commissioner. “We are calling competition off for the day. We are going to check again tomorrow. There is a small chance of running the event tomorrow, but we will be checking at 7:30 a.m. local time.”

Event organizers will reconvene tomorrow, Monday, December 10, at 7:30 a.m. HST to reassess the conditions and make the next call.

Once called on, the Billabong Pipe Masters will cap off the season to determine the 2018 Men’s World Champion and the winner of the prestigious Vans Triple Crown of the Surfing (VTCS). Three athletes remain in contention to claim the World Title: Gabriel Medina (BRA), Julian Wilson (AUS), and Filipe Toledo (BRA).

The Men’s World Title Scenarios going into the last event of the season, the Billabong Pipe Masters in Hawaii, are as follows:

– If Gabriel Medina finishes 1st or 2nd at the Billabong Pipe Masters, he wins the World Title;
– If Gabriel Medina finishes 3rd at the Billabong Pipe Masters, Julian Wilson and Filipe Toledo will need to finish 1st;
– If Gabriel Medina finishes 5th-25th, Julian Wilson and Filipe Toledo will need a 2nd or 1st at Pipe.

Billabong Pipe Masters: Third and Final Stage of Vans Triple Crown of Surfing
For 36 years, the VTCS has been sharing and celebrating one of the most significant sporting series in the world. The VTCS encompasses three different and equally storied wave venues along seven miles of hallowed coastline – Haleiwa Ali‘i Beach, Sunset Beach, and Pipeline. The first gem of the series, the Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa, saw 2012 WSL Champion Joel Parkinson (AUS) take the win and move closer to securing a fourth VTCS title. Parkinson announced retirement from professional surfing earlier this year but is lining up for a victorious swan song. Ezekiel Lau (HAW) won the Vans World Cup of Surfing yesterday in all-time big wave conditions at Sunset Beach and is in contention for his first VTCS title and another victory for Hawaii.Now, the three-event series heads into its final event, the Billabong Pipe Masters, which will determine the esteemed VTCS winner. Although the Triple Crown race is still open heading into Pipe, the top three leaders include Jesse Mendes (BRA), who placed 5th at the recent Hawaiian Pro and runner-up in yesterday’s Vans World Cup, Parkinson, and Lau, respectively.

Pipe Invitational Will Determine Two Wildcards for Billabong Pipe Masters
The first competition day of the Billabong Pipe Masters will feature the Pipe Invitational, a 32-man trials event that awards the top two finishers a wildcard into the main event. With a $ 60,000 prize purse on the line, but more importantly, a chance to play spoiler to the World Title, the Pipe Invitational will kick things off in dramatic fashion once competition begins.The 32-man draw is comprised of the top 12 finishers from the 2018 Volcom Pipe Pro, four Hawaii athletes off the International QS, four from the regional QS, six event wildcards, four standout Pipe performers, the 2017 Pipe Invitational defending event winner, and a Vans Triple Crown of Surfing contender. Names like Billy Kemper (HAW), 3x Jaws Challenge winner and reigning Big Wave Champion; former Pipe Invitational winners Finn McGill (HAW) and Dusty Payne (HAW); North Shore big wave standout Jack Robinson (AUS); and Hawaiian notable Mason Ho (HAW) fill the roster, alongside young guns like Wyatt McHale (HAW), 17, Justin Becret (FRA), 17, and Barron Mamiya (HAW), who have also earned their place in the lineup.For more information, please visit WorldSurfLeague.com.

Watch LIVE
The next call for the Pipe Invitational will be tomorrow, Monday, December 9, at 7:30 a.m. HST. The Billabong Pipe Masters will be broadcast LIVE on WSL’s Facebook page and WorldSurfLeague.com. Also check local listings for coverage from the WSL’s broadcast partners.

With Creed II now out in cinemas and Aquaman not far behind, former He-Man, Dolph Lundgren, is enjoying something of a renaissance. Not that he has been away from the movie scene, mind you, but with two big blockbuster movies in such a short space of time, he is firmly back in the limelight.

After the success of Rocky IV in 1985, the Swedish actor was thrust into his first starring role as the Prince of Eternia in the live-action version of Masters of the Universe. Back in the early 1980s, He-Man, Skeletor and chums were big business and in 1987 they made the leap to the big screen. Despite a hefty budget, the film was a box-office flop but has gained a huge cult following in the three decades since…

Film’s Creators “Had a Heart Attack”

Playing an American icon didn’t come easy for Lundgren given that his acting career was still in its infancy. He found the going tough. Indeed, when the first dailies from the film reached executives at Mattel – the creators of He-Man – they “just about had a heart attack!” His accent and grasp of English worried them, and they almost dubbed his voice before release. He stuck with it but admits it was a pressured role.

“I remember myself as a young kid, who had just been in this huge hit playing a Soviet bad guy, now suddenly having to play He-Man, this American hero and icon,” he says. “It kind of did a number on me. I was super nervous and under a lot of pressure — and with those long night shoots as well!”

Masters of the Universe set a record for the longest run of night shoots on any one film, with a reported 54 days of shooting.

Collapse of an Empire

Made for $ 22 million by Cannon Films, led by founders Menahem Golan and Yorum Globus, they saw huge potential in Masters of the Universe and a possible franchise, but during production the company was beset with financial problems and the set was fraught, with the crews not being paid on time and big chunks of the film being scrapped and truncated, including the big fight sequence in the film’s finale which almost wasn’t filmed.

“Cannon had a lot of financial problems, lots of things had to be changed and the script was chopped and things cut out,” remembers Lundgren. “We were caught up in this storm over at Cannon and I was starring in their biggest budget film and of course, the company was melting down underneath our feet whilst we were making it.”

Despite the failure of the film, a second part went into pre-production with director Albert Pyun attached to direct a lower-budget version without Lundgren, Langella et al. But when Cannon collapsed, Pyun turned the script into Cyborg, the 1989 actioner starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.

I DARE ANYTHING, I AM SKELETOR!

Frank Langella as Skeletor in Masters of the Universe.

No matter what you think of the film, there is one element that is almost unanimously admired: the performance of Frank Langella as Skeletor. It’s got to be one of the most underappreciated of all time. He sits somewhere outside Darth Vader, The Joker, Thanos and Hannibal Lecter, which, when you consider how goofy the cartoon version of the character was, says all you need to know about Langella’s performance. Indeed, the actor himself says it’s still one of his favourite parts of his career.

Lundgren says he was wowed by his performance.

“I really looked up to him and I was very respectful of him,” he says. “But I realised how good he was and what a great job he did because he was buried under these latex sheets that were glued onto his face and yet he could express all of these emotions and anger. He was always so nice, too.”

WHERE IS THE REMAKE/REBOOT?

Surprisingly, this film remains the only live-action version of the characters – though not for the want of trying. And that’s excluding a series of UK television ads in which the characters appear. Over the years filmmakers such as John Woo, John M. Chu, McG and David S. Goyer have tried and failed to bring He-Man and co. back to the big screen with a 21st-century makeover. Sony now has the rights (and still have the film “primed” for a Christmas 2019 release), but given the lure of superheroes, comic books and fantasy stories in modern cinema, Lundgren is as shocked as anyone that a remake hasn’t yet emerged, especially as he would like to be in it.

“Yeah, I’m very surprised. I heard about it about ten years ago when one of the big studios was working on it,” he said. “I actually met the writer, by the way. We had a dinner and he asked me if I would want to be in the picture and I said, ‘Sure!’ If they thought of something good, then great. Then that went under and someone else came in, then I heard Channing Tatum was gonna play He-Man at some point – this was maybe five years ago – and now I just heard that someone else is attached to it. Channing would be great. I met him on Hail, Caesar when I did a little submarine sequence [which was eventually cut out]. He would be good, he’s a cool guy.”

As for a director, what about James Wan, who helmed Aquaman? After all, he is a self-confessed fan of the original film.

“When I was hired for Aquaman, James Wan told me he was a huge Masters fan when he was a kid, he had the sword and everything. And when he was casting King Nereus he thought of He-Man, and he thought of me so having done Masters kind of got me the role in that film.”

A GOOD JOURNEY

Despite all the issues with the film, there are many that still hold a special place for it in their hearts. In the UK, for example, it was reportedly one of the biggest video rentals of 1988 and its cult following has grown so much that many fans are still clamouring for a special Blu-ray release from an independent distributor. Sadly, the likelihood of that is very slim. Over the years, Lundgren has reportedly distanced himself from the film but he put the record straight and said he still holds the film close to his heart.

“I look back at it very fondly. I know there has been some speculation in the press that I didn’t like it – maybe I said that when I was 32 or something – but I do have huge fondness for it,” he said. “I’ve caught the film since many times and it’s such a sweet, alluring movie. It’s flawed in some ways but its very watchable. I like the story, the fact that they came to Earth and they to make it back to Eternia. I think that was all cool.”

Whatever happens to future incarnations of the characters, the 1987 version has a charm to it that can never be recaptured. And despite all the problems it was beset with, director Gary Goddard and his crew managed to pull out one of the gems of ’80s sci-fi/fantasy cinema. Albeit one that wasn’t appreciated in its time.

Creed II is out now while Aquaman hits screens in the UK screens on December 12, the US on December 21 and Australia on December 26.